Brothascomics Podcast

Friday, July 31, 2015

It is? Did you know about this? Did you get the memo? I did not get the memo! The people who run Peanuts now have officially declared today, National Franklin Day to celebrate the 47th anniversary of Franklin being put into the Peanuts comics strip. This pre-dates my birth by a few years but, obviously, I am aware of Franklin and his contributions( which are few and far between) to Peanuts.

The comic strip appeared 47 years ago where Charlie Brown first meets Franklin at a beach vacation back in 1968. Now I know to some of you younger readers, this might not seem like a big deal. But to many white people, this was a huge deal to have a fictional black character interacting with a fictional, yet beloved, white character in comics. Charles Schultz, the creator of Peanuts, received death threats and hate mail for doing this back in the 60's and those letters continued until his death in 2000 from people who felt that integrating comics was wrong.

Now you would have to know me very well to know this, but I am a Peanuts junkie- at least until 2000 when Charles Schultz died. Growing up, I read all the books, the comic strip everyday, and of course all the holiday specials from the Great Pumpkin, to the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.
Those cartoons are really a calendar to my life in many ways. I knew it was fall when the Great Pumpkin would come on. I knew it was Thanksgiving when the Thanksgiving special was coming on. Hell even Valentines Day and Easter had Charlie Brown specials and much of my year was just looking forward to the next special. That's not including the movies! I died with Charlie Brown when he spelled b-e-a-g-l-e wrong and lost the spelling bee in A Boy Named Charlie Brown! I watched Race for your Life Charlie Brown every summer! Never ask Big Hutch about having to watch Bon Voyage Charlie Brown( and don't come back) because I watched it so much I broke the VHS tape. And for the love of all that is holy, I cried my eyes out at Snoopy Come Home and if you didn't, you are a liar or a damn robot who has no feelings!

Bon Voyage Charlie Brown( and Don't come Back)

A Boy Named Charlie Brown

Snoopy Come Home!

And as a young black kid, of course you had to notice Franklin because he was the only black kid in town, the only black kid in school, the only black kid on the baseball team.... you get the picture. I mean, he is there in all the specials. Most of the time, he is just in the background. He may get a line or two here and there but, like most black people in comics, he is pushed to the side or placed way in the back. But he is there!

So why, 47 years later, is Peanuts giving us a National Franklin Day for a character that they barely acknowledged in the entire mainstream run of Peanuts? Oh that's right, they have a movie to promote and there is money to be made.

If you have not heard, Fox is rolling out a Peanuts movie to try and introduce these characters to a new generation of kids. And of course, you need to recognize that the comic strip, while loved by many, including myself, is not exactly diverse in its presentation. So Franklin gets a whole day dedicated to himself ahead of the movie.

Word? Really? Look, I'm black and Franklin is not my favorite Peanuts character ( I'm a Linus guy myself). And why would he be? He was placed so far in the back or separated and not given any chances to shine as a character. When you read the comic strips, you get to see a bit more of him and his character( he really is essentially a black Linus) but most people didn't read the books or the strips. They are familiar with him from the tv shows and specials. And if you don't think there was a division on how to deal with him, look at this from the Thanksgiving Special.

One of these kids is not like the other

This is pandering at its best and the movie industry always looks for a way to try and bring in diversity when there is a chance to make or lose money. And I'm not mad at them for doing it. They need to promote their product to a wide audience and they are doing what they feel is best. I wont be surprised if a Latino Peanut character shows up or an Asian character or even a Gay character. They want to cover every possible base to make as much money as possible. And that is okay. Peanuts needs to be more diverse. But don't make up shit to call attention to something you never paid attention to before. It's insulting!

So Happy Franklin Day! I am confused tho! Was I supposed to come to work today? Is the bank open? Is Publix open? What food should I make for Franklin Day? Will there be mail delivery today? Are only black people supposed to celebrate this day? Are we to play hockey or center field like Franklin? Or maybe breakdance like Franklin did in Flashbeagle? Or maybe we need to quote the Old testament like Franklin has been known to do. I really don't know how to act on Franklin Day! Maybe next year they will give us the heads up ahead of time so we can plan accordingly and know what to do!

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Podcast 6 is up! Join Brother Beavis and I as we discuss Antman and its place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The end of Phase 2 and what movies we are looking forward to in Phase 3. We also discuss news that came out of comic con and of course the STFU awards.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

What can I say, I could not be happier that the Marvel Gods finally wised up and realized what a huge mistake casting Channing Tatum as Gambit is. This dude has the acting ability of a brown paper bag, naw I take that back, a brown paper bag actually has some acting ability, LOL. To think that they thought that Channing Tatum could pull off a $150 million dollar movie is laughable. Let alone due justice to one of my favorite X-Men characters. However, from what we are hearing, someone wised up and either Channing decided to leave on his own accord or they got rid of him because they didn't have the confidence that he could pull it off, boy are they right!

It is no secret, I am no fan of Channing Tatum and since Gambit is one of my favorite X-Men, to see him murderlize (to use Big Hutch's terminology) Gambit would be horrible. Now, they should give Taylor Kitsch another opportunity to play the character. I know most people are probably going to say that will not happen because of Taylor Kitsch track record with opening movies. However, If they gave Ryan Reynolds another opportunity to play Deadpool, and we know Ryan Reynolds can't open a movie, they can a least do it for Taylor Kitsch and Taylor is a better actor. Taylor Kitsch also did a decent job playing the character in Wolverine - Origins.

I also agree with The Producer in stating that they should probably re-introduce the character in the X-Men movie first, then give him a solo project.

So, here's to Taylor Kitsch being recast as Gambit and getting a good Gambit movie made. Yeah!!!

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Lots of good information but I still have my concerns about this movie. Plus there are some conflicting reports, as well. The most glaring one being that Gambit will/will not appear in Age of Apocalypse. I have stated this before, Gambit needs to be introduced somehow/someway before appearing in his own movie. The character, why beloved my comic fans, is not a well known enough property to carry a movie based on name alone. Age of Apocalypse will be the last time to be able to introduce the character to a broader audience, so I hope those rumors are not true. Secondly, from a studio perspective, this is the first movie Channing Tatum will need to carry on his own without getting butt ass nekkid. And he is on a little bit of a cold streak with Jupiter Ascending descending at the box office and Magic Mike XL not doing nearly as well as the first one. And this movie will all be on him as the star.

The other bit of news coming out was the leak of the casting sheet. In it, you can see that they are casting for "any race" characters and from the looks of it, it appears to be they are casting for the thieves guild of which Gambit is a member. This makes Gambit an origin story and Gambit's origin, while it plays well in the comics, could come off corny and lead to Selma like marches to the exits out of the theater.

Lastly, the big news of today was that Gambit will start filming in October and the budget for the movie is $150 million. WTF? The original Spider Man by Sam Rami had a production budget of $140 million dollars. Spiderman, a character that they needed much CGI to make the character authentic and believable. This is Gambit, whose only power is charging things with kinetic energy! Why in the world would they need $150 million for that?

One of the people I truly respect on Twitter @patricklewis tweeted at me that this was going to be like John Carter... the infamous DC flop from a few years ago and I agree 100%. DC took a chance on a lesser known characters but gave him a big budget action movie that bombed. It bombed ironically enough with the actor who first played Gambit in Wolverine Origins: Taylor Kitsch.

Man listen, a Gambit movie can be and needs to be done on a much smaller budget than $150 million. They are setting the movie and the actor up to fail. I am assuming that is production budget- not accounting for advertising. And knowing that Marvel ain't gonna allow for any outside revenue streams from toys and merchandising, the movie could be a huge loser for Fox( and Tatum)

So why are the pushing forward so hard for Gambit? Do they really think the character has such a rabid fan following? Do they think Channing Tatum is the next Tom Cruise and he can pull a mediocre film and premise based on his looks and personality alone? I'm not taking that bet and neither should he if he value his long term career prospects.

Like I posted earlier today, once filming starts, we wont be able to stop this movie from being made. I am not sure if you pray to God, Budda, Allah, or whomever, but if you want to see this movie stopped, you gonna need to get your prayers on quick, Only 10 weeks till self destruct!

UPDATE: So news breaks this afternoon/evening that Channing Tatum may drop out of the project. That is kinda funny because the only reason this is getting made is because he is the reason that the movie is actually getting made. I think this is good news/bad news. If he drops out, there will be no Gambit movie anytime soon. I don't think they can move forward without the "star". But its good news for most fans, especially Blerds, who had little to no faith in Tatum or Fox to be able to pull this movie off convincingly.

Monday, July 27, 2015

On the last brothascomics podcast, we talked about why, as Blerds,we had not made it to San Diego for Comic Con. Its for sure on the Geek Bucket List but its a crazy cash trip for a few days coming from the ATL. And if the flight wasn't enough( plus admission into the con), take a look at trying to find a spot to rest your head. So maybe the Producer got it right: GO DRAGON CON and watch all the San Diego stuff on line!